Energy Newsbriefs Blog

The WSU Energy Program Library prepares this current awareness blog with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy State Energy Program. These articles highlight energy-related news, articles, and reports about energy efficiency, energy conservation, and renewable sources of energy for energy professionals and interested members of the public.

"Variable refrigerant flow (VRF) offers an alternate HVAC solution. Its key attributes include zonal control, energy efficiency, and indoor air quality (IAQ). To help facilitate their successful design and operation, engineers should take advantage of the available resources and training offered by manufacturers, utilities, and others."

"It might seem like an odd objective, but the potential efficiency gains are real. And from heat recovery chillers to modified humidification targets so are the opportunities to replace steam production with hot water generation and to manage remaining steam needs more intelligently."

"Budgets, codes, and technologies are constantly shifting and evolving. These days, even the classrooms are often portable. Staying one step ahead will depend on your knowledge of current design options and how to integrate them into the space."

"Budgets, codes, and technologies are constantly shifting and evolving. These days, even the classrooms are often portable. Staying one step ahead will depend on your knowledge of current design options and how to integrate them into the space."

"Dedicated outdoor air systems (DOAS) decouple the heating, cooling, dehumidification and humidification of outdoor air from the space air-conditioning system. Common HVAC systems such as water (ground) source heat pumps, variable refrigerant flow (VRF), fan coils and chilled beams require a DOAS to meet ventilation requirements. But DOAS is a system, not a piece of equipment."

"Demand-control ventilation (DCV) provides "automatic reduction of OA intake below design rates when the actual occupancy of spaces served by the system is less than design occupancy."1 CO2 sensing can be used to estimate the strength of occupant-related contaminant sources.2 This type of control approach is called CO2-based DCV. With a single-zone system, the breathing zone CO2 concentration can be used to directly control the outdoor air (OA) damper."

"July 2015's 'Basics of Well-Mixed Room Air Distribution' described how conditioned air moves throughout a space. In the Fundamentals at Work article, we discuss where the conditioned air comes from by exploring the most predominant products in use today: commercial building variable air volume (VAV) terminal units."

"This report presents the findings and conclusions of the Pacific Northwest Residential Ventilation Effectiveness study in houses with low air leakage. The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) commissioned the Washington State University (WSU) Energy Program to conduct the study, which included a total of twenty-nine houses in Washington State with five different types of ventilation systems. Exhaust ventilation (Exhaust Only (EO) and Exhaust with Inlet Vents (EI)) and heat recovery ventilation (HRV)/energy recovery ventilation (ERV) systems made up the largest share of the ventilation systems studied."

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The Energy Newsbriefs Blog is a continuation of the weekly Energy Newsbriefs. Please bookmark this site and return frequently. Although we will not be accepting comments from within the Blog, we would be happy to hear from you by email at library@energy.wsu.edu